The Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office (OCMEO) has released the body of Pulse nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen, 29, but would not provide details as to whom it was released.
“We’re not able to release any of that information,” Joanna, an investigator with the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office told Breitbart News in a phone call on Tuesday. An email from the Orange County Public Information Officer (PIO), addressed to Breitbart News, indicated that “this remains an active criminal investigation.”
It is unlikely that the coroner’s medical report of the bodies of Mateen’s 49 victims will be released until federal authorities complete their investigation. The autopsies were conducted within 72 hours of the heinous act of terrorism.
The FBI has also refused to provide further details about where or to whom Mateen’s body has been released. “At the request of the FBI, no further information is available regarding the shooter’s autopsy report, who the body was released to, and when the body was released,” the OCMEO said.
On Thursday, Orange County chief medical examiner Joshua Stephany, said in a statement that the coroner’s office had transported and kept Mateen’s corpse away from his 49 victims.
The Medical Examiner’s Office also issued a press statement stating that Mateen’s “autopsy was also conducted in another building, away from the victims. This is not a law or requirement, but was rather done out of respect for the victims and their families so that the shooter may never be near the 49 beautiful souls again.”
The PIO issued an email on Tuesday indicating that the city of Orlando is working to get Orange Avenue, which has been closed from Kaley Street to Grant Street since the shooting, open for business and travel.
Meanwhile, the FBI has been working with authorities to investigate the people who knew Mateen for clues as to where he could have become radicalized.
Breitbart News attempted to call the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, the mosque attended by Mateen, but the phone number listed on the Internet was disconnected.
Reuters reported on Saturday that, for about 30 minutes prior to Friday prayers (Jumu’ah), two federal agents from the FBI met with and questioned a man who knew Mateen from his visits to the mosque. “We were meeting with some agents,” Omar Saleh, a lawyer for the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who sat in on the session, told Reuters. “They were asking questions relative to the incident that happened on Sunday,” Saleh said, refusing to identify the person in the interview.
CAIR, which has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-funding operation, has been at the forefront of helping the families of terrorists. Last year, CAIR ensured Islamic burials for the San Bernardino terrorists, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. CAIR also arranged help for the family to fight for custody of the terrorist couple’s baby.
According to local outlet WPTV, Mateen was given a traditional Islamic burial within the last 48 hours in the state of Florida. No other details regarding his remains are currently available.
Mateen was born in America. His parents are from Afghanistan, and his father, Mir Seddique, or Seddique Mateen, has declared his support for the Taliban in the past. He also declared his candidacy for the presidency of Afghanistan, a post currently occupied by Ashraf Ghani.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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